US Election 2016, regional Australia has its say

Below are stories from regional Australia, where, although thousands of kilometres away, the US Election is being carefully watched. 

While the world waits to see who will be announced as the 45th President of the United States of America, one local woman watches on particularly eagerly.

For Leeton woman Debbie Ierano, the potentially dangerous unrest the election result could cause in her home country has been a frightening thought weighing on her mind.

“It is so divisive that no matter who wins a lot of people are going to be unhappy,” she said.

“My mum still lives there and I worry about what the climate will be like after the election.

“Of course I would prefer that Hilary Clinton win, but I know there are a lot of people who would be horrified if she did.

“I feel sick to my stomach, and I am not being dramatic.”

Wapengo’s Sunara Hanzlik was born in the United States, before leaving at the age of three and returning for a brief period in 2013.

The 29-year-old said a Clinton victory would leave her with a feeling of relief.

“I would be very relieved to be honest, I haven’t always understood the level of vitriol she [Clinton] has received, but it seems gender based,” Ms Hanzlik said.

“I do tend to believe she has her heart in the right place.”

While Ms Hanzlik doesn’t consider herself a “political person” she said the US system does make it difficult for diverse voices to be represented in its parliament.

Jon Gaul - a key figure in the Merimbula branch of the Liberal Party and former Canberra political lobbyist - is in the United States to analyse the race for the White House. 

Mr Gaul flies to Denver, Colorado, tomorrow to start a four-day post-mortem on the US election at the 49th conference of the International Association of Political Consultants.

In an email to Fairfax Media earlier this week, Mr Gaul, of Tura Beach, said that two days out from the election, Hillary Clinton retained a diminished but solid lead of 3 to 4 per cent over Donald Trump in the national polls.

The moment someone detects Jacob Opatz’s American accent, the Minnesota native braces for another conversation about the Republican nominee for US President.

“About the second thing they ask you is, ‘what do you think about Trump?’”

Mr Opatz, from St Cloud in the northern state where Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton is favoured to win, has been in Newcastle on a working holiday since July.

A supporter of Senator Bernie Sanders during the Democratic primaries, he has found himself disengaged from the election in his home country.

“It’s one of the reasons I’m dreading going back to the States, this feeling like we’re having to choose from the lesser of two evils,” Mr Opatz, 23, said.

“I think it’s ridiculous that we would have a candidate like Donald Trump, or either of them, obviously.”

When Cloncurry librarian Julie Guteridge speaks and you listen, you hear her American drawl. 

She comes from Lincoln, Nebraska, and certainly has her views on who should win the American election to be held Tuesday, November 8. 

Yes, she supports Donald Trump. Yes, she’s Republican, but also a swing voter. And yes, she is afraid she might come across as too opinionated. 

A WAGGA US expat has branded presidential nominee Donald Trump “crazy” as the former reality TV star tightens his grip on the White House. 

The condemnation comes as CSU politics lecturer Dr Troy Whitford claimed Mr Trump “wouldn’t last two seconds in Australia.”

“Trump would be howled down by political correctness and the Australian media would go after him with rusty knives,” Dr Whitford said. 

“He can capture the imagination of Americans who are fed up, but the established political elites won’t put up with him for very long.

“He appears to be cantankerous and difficult to work with but no one has a right to tell another democracy who they can and can't have as a leader.”

Wagga resident Diane Mortimer, who returned from the US on Friday, likened Mr Trump to One Nation Party Leader Pauline Hanson.

Katie Sainsbury is wearing white on Wednesday.

Sainsbury, 18, of Castle Hill, is a major – major – fan of Hillary Rodham Clinton and instead of being on schoolies, she's going to a party to celebrate the ascension of HRC to the presidency. With her mum.

White is symbolic for this particular US election campaign. It's the colour of hope, of the suffragettes; and Hillary herself has been known to strut a white pantsuit on the campaign trail.

Katie's mum, Alison, is going the full pantsuit, although most likely black with a bright Clinton T-shirt. She has all the paraphernalia. The buttons. The posters. The nasty woman T-shirts. The mugs. And a tremendous belief Clinton will win.

If Tulip the wonder pig’s predictions are anything to go by, the United States election should be a decisive win for Hillary Clinton.  

The magnificent beast had his snout pointed towards Mrs Clinton for a strong majority of the Riverina Producer’s Market at Wagga Showgrounds on Thursday afternoon. 

Tulip’s latest tip comes after the pig successfully picked the winners of the AFL and RFL grand finals.

The decisive battle in Tuesday’s US election will be the “ground game” to get voters to the booth, says former Labor candidate for Calare Jess Jennings.

Dr Jennings is in New York with his wife Kate and daughter Lola to volunteer his support for Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

They landed in New York late on November 1 and have since taken part in a number of campaign events.

If all goes to plan, though, the highlight will be attending Ms Clinton’s victory party in New York on Tuesday night – just 10 blocks from Donald Trump’s famous Trump Towers – after queueing in a line that snaked on for more than a block to get tickets.

Commonwealth Bank's Global Market Reseach team strategist Joseph Capurso explains in detail how the US Election works.

I Australia, the party with a majority of seats in the House of Representatives forms government. In Australia, the political parties elect the prime minister instead of the voters. In the US, people vote for ‘electoral colleges’ who in turn elect the president. Generally, the electoral colleges follow the preference of the voters in their state when selecting the president. 

Hillary Clinton has got the thumbs up from Dubbo residents but time will tell if she gets her hands on the keys to the White House.

A year of campaigning for the presidency of the United States of America (US) by Mrs Clinton and her rival Donald Trump is in its final hours. 

The battle between the the Democrat with a political pedigree and the Republican billionaire has been played out in homes across Australia. On Tuesday Dubbo businessmen, residents and federal Member for Parkes Mark Coulton were asked by the Daily Liberal to select the best candidate for the position of leader of the free world.

Real estate agent Bob Berry gave his opinion interspersed with laughter. “I think for safety sake and the family association I’d like to see Hillary Clinton be the president rather than the other gentleman,” he said.“I think if she is elected we can all go back to our day jobs and forget about America. And if Donald Trump is elected I probably won’t get a visa to enter the US.” 

There may be some distance between Newcastle City Hall and the White House, but the threat of a Donald Trump presidency jolted Declan Clausen into joining the US election campaign.

Cr Clausen, a Newcastle Labor councillor, joined the Hillary Clinton campaign last month in the face of resurgent polling by Republican nominee Mr Trump.

Mr Clausen and his partner Steven Moore have been door-knocking for Mrs Clinton in the city of Aurora, a 20-minute drive outside of Denver in the battleground state of Colorado.